Kenyan police accused of 'roughing up' Lord Monson's son to get false confession

Alexander Monson, the aristocrat's son who died in Kenyan custody, was 'roughed
up' by police officers because he refused to sign a fabricated confession
that implicated him in a series of criminal activities, according to a
Kenyan public official.

Alexander Monson had lived on Kenya's coast for four years after moving from London, where he had studied psychology at City University and art at Chelsea College of Art and Design.

Sources in Mombasa, the largest city on Kenya's coast, have revealed that the former Marlborough College pupil was hit "to make him understand" that police would not release him unless he "played their game".

Mr Monson, 28, was arrested two weeks ago for smoking a cannabis joint outside a late-night bar in Diani, Kenya's most popular beach resort, and taken to the local police station. He was found to have cannabis, ketamine and anti-anxiety pills in his pockets when police searched him.

"He was left through the night but in the morning [police officers] presented him with a statement they said he had to sign," said an official with knowledge of the case, who asked not to be identified.

"He knew he was guilty of having the drugs, but the things they wrote on that paper were not his doing. He refused, and they roughed him up to make him understand that he should play their game."

According to a timeline of the events of early May 19, pieced together by The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Monson fell ill soon after he was allegedly presented with this confession.

After his arrest at 2.30am, he was seen at the Diani Police Station being led into the holding cell at 4.30am, and was in "good spirits" and unharmed.

Friends who later went to try to pay his bail saw him standing, gripping the bars of the window on the cell door, at 8am.

But by 11am, Mr Monson was unconscious and was being taken by ambulance to Diani's Palm Beach Hospital, where he died six hours later of a massive blood clot on his brain.

An official post-mortem by a Kenyan government pathologist revealed that the haemorrhage that created the clot was caused by a blow to the head from a blunt object.

A second, independent pathologist's report seen by The Sunday Telegraph confirmed this, blaming Mr Monson's death on "head injury due to a blunt trauma force attended by brain concussion and raised intracranial pressure".

Mr Monson's father Nicholas, the 12th Baron Monson, claims that a police officer assaulted his son while he was in custody, and has demanded a full inquiry or inquest.

Kenya's internal security minister, George Saitoti, on Thursday met Lord Monson and promised that questions over Mr Monson's death would be investigated.

"I was received with great grace and courtesy," Lord Monson, 57, said. "Professor Saitoti gave me his personal assurances that this matter would not be left alone, and begged our patience while things take their course."

Fresh investigations by The Sunday Telegraph have revealed that a police officer said to have been on duty the night Mr Monson was arrested has left for "unplanned leave".

It is understood that he was one of the officers who processed Mr Monson's arrest once he had arrived at the Diani Police Station.

A police spokesman refused to comment on these claims. Senior officers continued to deny that any policeman was in any way responsible for the death of Mr Monson, and a spokesman specifically denied the report of a forced confession.

"It is becoming troublesome that the official investigation is being pre-empted by leaks to the media," he said. "Beyond denying any suggestion that Mr Monson was presented with a statement to sign including things he did not say, we have no further comment."

Lord Monson said that he planned to establish a foundation in his son's name, which would be dedicated to forging closer connections between Kenyan police officials and the local community, in a bid to tackle persistent reports of police brutality.

Mr Monson had lived on Kenya's coast for four years after moving from London, where he had studied psychology at City University and art at Chelsea College of Art and Design.

He lived with his mother, Hilary, 58, who is separated from Lord Monson and who owns a beachside plot with several cottages for rent to tourists, on a compound her family has owned since 1964.

Mr Monson had recently gone into business with a friend, establishing a commercial bamboo plantation in hills behind the Indian Ocean coast.

He was cremated on Monday in a Hindu-style ceremony in Mombasa, where his body was burnt on top of a wooden funeral pyre.